A resident of the neighborhoods surrounding The Legends of Massillon told the SCPR that she was told that Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry had let it be known that if her Democratic opponent in next Tuesday primary election; namely, J. David Ress, was going to be at her "neighborhoods of Massillon" meeting at The Legends; then she wasn't.

Well, he was there, she came, she stayed and there was a mini debate of sorts.

She said his questions were political and therefore (impliedly) out-of-order at her "non-political" neighborhood meeting that she scheduled some five days before the primary election of May 5, 2015.

Hmm?

Of course her appearance was political and Ress's questions were politically inspired, pure and simple!

Anybody who knows and understands this mayor cannot be surprised that she would try to shut somebody up.

And that is exactly what she tried to do at The Legends of Massillon at last evening "neighborhood" meeting.

While there were some awkward and embarrassing moments for Mayor Kathy at the meeting, she likely managed to get through it without inflicting major political damage on herself.

The SCPR thinks she is likely to win on Tuesday, but this race may be closer than anybody thinks and if it is could harbinger a loss in November should former Democratic mayor Frank Cicchinelli he decides to run as an independent alongside Republican Lee Brunckhart.

In this blog, the SCPR will feature "highlight" short video clips of the interaction between the mayor and The Legends of Massillon area residents.

However, at the end of this blog, the SCPR makes available the entire footage of the mayor's night at The Legends.

HIGHLIGHTS

THE DEBACLE AT THE LEGENDS

Council Put Doug Nist In Charge of Massillon's Park and Recreation Over the Objection of the Mayor

In essence, as Mayor Catazaro-Perry nearly always seems to do, she blames what she terms as being "the debacle of The Legends" as being the fault of Massillon City Council and in particular an "unnamed" councilperson who the mayor claims forced her to hire Doug Nist (August, 2013) as director of Massillon's Parks and Recreation Department before he was ready.

To boot, she claims that she was hamstrung by council in the oversight of Parks and Recreation until January of this year.

The SCPR's recollection is somewhat different.

The Report's take is that council always has known and supported the notion that it was not structured so as to manage Parks and Recreation.

And that only Massillon's administration was equipped to do so.

However, council did want to be part of the process of management in terms of being consulted with and protecting whomever was hired/fired as director from the political whims of various interest groups (including the mayor's office).

Here is a SCPR video of council reaction to proposals (one by then Councilman Larry Slagle and the other by the mayor) made back on July 8, 2013.

Readers of this blog can see the prior SCPR blog (LINK) which reports on the Parks and Recreation controversy and has embedded videos of Councilman Slagle making his proposal and Mayor Catazaro-Perry making hers.

Council and Law Director Perry Stergios were the Cause of the Debacle but Now the Mayor has Embarked (as of March 20, 2015) in Micromanaging The Legends of Massillon

As suggested early on by a Legends area resident last night, the SCPR thinks that her interest in asserting control is more a function trying to survive in upcoming elections as mayor than her claiming to have been freed from constraints placed on her by Law Director Stergios and Massillon City Council.

Questions to the Mayor

It was "grit your teeth" time for Mayor Kathy as she opened the session up to questions.

The Report's take is that she "bobbed and weaved" all over the place like a boxer who is trying to avoid a knockout punch.

Her defense of the current set of four Parks and Recreation Board (PRB) members (there is one Massillon School Board vacancy to be filled) was lame at best and is likely seen by some as insincere.

Marsha Harris smoked her out when the mayor put on the obvious pretense that "if only someone would apply" that the School Board would likely respond.

When confronted then she, as she is apt to do, turned about face and came up with the cockamamic but politically correct/safe response that the board is concerned with educating Massillon's children and not fulfilling its obligation to fill the vacancy on the PRB.

And she was in "a fully protect mode" on PRB member Dave Gallagher who, according to some at the meeting, is no longer qualified to be a member of the PRB because of a disqualifying number of absences from PRB meetings by the PRB's own bylaws.

These Catazaro-Perry responses the SCPR thinks is clear evidence along with her newly found optimism that the PRB members "all of a sudden" are open to do a 180 on a prior recorded unanimous vote (of those present and voting) to seek the closure of The Legends of Massillon.

What the SCPR believes we saw last night was a mayor being highly political and was supposed to be a non-political neighborhood meeting.

There will be other examples of such sprinkled in the remainder of this blog.

The SCPR thinks she has been using the PRB as "a trial balloon-esque" mechanism to see whether or not getting rid of The Legends of Massillon is a goal that can be achieved.

More questions to the Mayor

In the video immediately above the mayor's haste to jump on the proposal to put a Waterpark at The Legends came up.

The SCPR is of the belief that talking of "a debacle," the celebratory ebullience that broke out with the the Catazaro-Perry administration at the time was indicative of the desperation that the mayor was experiencing and continues to experience to bring big-time economic development to Massillon.

She has had some success. But a significant part of that success came from groundwork laid by the Frank Cicchinelli administration which Catazaro-Perry continues four years later to bash as being the fault of "all that ails Massillon, four years later."

She needs to give that one up.

Even Mayor Healy of Canton has given up bashing the administration of Janet Creighton as being the genesis of everything that is problematic in Canton. And, like Catazaro-Perry and Franchis H. Cicchinelli, Jr., Healy and Creighton continue to hate one another.

Mature people jettison personal animosity when they have an elected office responsibility.

That Catazaro-Perry has been unable to move on, shows that she is ill-suited to continue on as mayor of Massillon.

What is interesting is that she plays it both ways.

On the thing with the PRB and the members' antagonistic relationship with residents of The Legends area, she says "we need to move on."

But if she can lampoon former the former mayor and council for things past, guess what she does?

Some think he got off with a mere "slap on the wrist" for what seems to be some very serious disrespectful conduct that one would think should not be coming from a judge.

So he is hardly the angelic figure that Catazaro-Perry likes to make him.

Moreover, the SCPR thinks that Elum is a member of a "Kitchen Cabinet" of sort (Elum, Clerk of Courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr, and his chief deputy Shane Jackson) without whom the SCPR thinks Catazaro-Perry could not function as mayor.

Also included in the immediate preceding video, is an exchange between the mayor and her Tuesday primary election opponent J. David Ress.

The mayor is absolutely correct.

Ress's point that she is not qualified to micromanage The Legends was clearly a political attack.

She would have been in order to try to ignore him had she not timed her appearance before the area residents of The Legends within five days of the election.

In so scheduling, she herself was being political and of course her attacks on council and on the law director were political attacks.

In the session she made the point that "all" members of council are up for election this year.

Hmm? What was that allusion to?

Maybe that the folks gathered at last night's event ought to be voting against Councilwoman Michelle Del-Rio Keller, Councilman Paul Manson and Councilman Milan Chovan?

Think maybe, just maybe?

So her treatment of Ress is yet another case of demonstrated hypocrisy which Mayor Kathy is so accomplished at.

CONCLUSION

The SCPR has picked out the highlights of the more controversial elements of last night's event at The Legends of Massillon.

One not featured is the argument of whether or not Massillon should be in fiscal emergency in the first place.

The SCPR has written frequently that The Report thinks that Catazaro-Perry and her "Kitchen Cabinet" devised a political gambit designed "over the long haul" of being in office for four years that the mayor would look like some kind of financial/economic development "miracle worker."

Last night she tried to posture herself as being a mere bystander while the State of Ohio Auditor (Dave Yost) showed a lack of "due diligence" in not detecting what she likes to posit as being a dire financial situation.

The fact of the matter - the SCPR thinks - even before she took office on being elected in November, 2011 is that she was besieging Yost to put Massillon in fiscal emergency in the context of what the SCPR thinks was a political contrivance as described above.

Eventually (October, 2013) she was successful in convincing (there is a SCPR blog which contains her pro-active arguments as to why Massillon should be determined to be in "fiscal emergency") Yost to act and place fiscal emergency.

Even with Catazaro-Perry's highly active effort, Yost's folks found the slimmest of reasons for placing Massillon's fiscal matters under State of Ohio control.

In doing so, if it happens that she and council cannot agree or ultimately put together an agreed upon plan acceptable to Massillon voters to bring Massillon out of its "cash flow problem," then Massillonians will bear the full brunt of 15% across-the-board cuts that undoubtedly will visit extreme hardships on Massillonians in terms of greatly reduced city services (i.e. police protection, fire protection, street and highway repair, accessibility to city administrative service [e.g. obtaining permits, getting answers to income tax questions and the like]).

And the SCPR thinks - if such happens - will be a consequence of a politically-calculated-long-term-benefit to the reelection chances of the mayor will be the culprit.

Accordingly, it is mind boggling that Massillonians may well reward what the SCPR thinks was irresponsible behavior with re-election.

There is no doubt that Tuesday is a tough choice for Massillonians.

Catazaro-Perry's apparent to the SCPR political gaming versus an inexperienced candidate for mayor in J. David Ress.

Ress admits his obvious unpreparedness to be mayor and promises to bring in the very best to assist him as mayor.

And the SCPR thinks should he upset Catazaro-Perry in Tuesday's election, Ress will go on to be elected mayor in this heavily Democratic city.

Even if he doesn't, who thinks that Republican Lee Brunckhart is any more prepared than Ress to be mayor?

The only real alternative to Catazaro-Perry is former mayor Frank Cicchinelli.

But if Ress wins, the word is that he will not file/follow through as an independent candidate.

Indeed, the stakes are very high in Tuesday's election.

Anyway Massillonians' vote is a risky enterprise for this once proud city!

Here is the unedited video of the entire Catazaro-Perry presentation at The Legends of Massillon, April 29, 2015.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

As only The Stark County Political Report will do, this blog analysis who "the big hitters" are in terms of their contributions to local political party support.

Using the pre-primary (April 23, 2015) data supplied by the Stark County Board of Elections (Travis Secrest) on the SCPR's request, The Report analyzed both the Stark GOP and Stark Dems contributions to baseline organizations.

THE REPUBLICANS

TOP COMMITTED?

Notice that Stark County Court of Common Pleas Dixie Park's spouse John is one of the more reliable Stark County Republican Party causes supporters.

The SCPR finds his place on "the most committed" list to be consistent with an oft repeated phrase among organization Republicans that "so-and-so-candidate" has the financial ability to "Parkize" an opponent.

And that goes to a perception among Stark County organized and elected official Republicans that if Dixie is in a race she is in it to win and that husband John (a prominent Stark County medical doctor) will spend way more than what most politicos think necessary to ensure a win.

As readers of the SCPR know, The Report thinks Dixie (as documented in prior blogs, with more to come) is an embarrassment to Stark County's judiciary and to the citizens of Stark County.

But there is no denying that having loads of money to campaign with cures lots of what otherwise be fatal political/governance defects.

Surprising on the "committed list" is Republican Stark County commissioner Janet Creighton.

The SCPR thinks she is "the face of the Stark County Republican Party. And yet she is at the bottom of "the [financial] commitment list published above.

Of course today's listing is only part of the evidence that one should rely on in making a "commitment determination" Republican or Democratic.

Also to be factored in is the scope and degree of contributions to party candidates and the mentoring that one provides to new party activists.

The SCPR thinks Creighton is particularly strong in the mentoring area.

THE ALSO-RANS?

No disrespect here. For these folks are "the heart and soul" of any political organization.

There are a few surprising names in terms of who is not on the list.

How about "among the missing" being:

Stark GOP chair Jeff Matthews,

the Republican Board of Election members Curt Braden (a former chairman) and William Cline,

Republican judicial appointee (two times) Curtis Werren,

County Auditor Alan Harold, and

County Treasurer Alex Zumbar

Surprising in the "low level of support" are North Canton councilpersons Stephanie Snow Werren (the judge's wife) and Marcia Kiesling.

Could it be that Kiesling thinks she more than makes up for "the low level of [financial] support" in helping Republicans get appointed positions in North Canton government?

Sad to see that former Minerva councilman and SCPR celebrity Phil Davison is not on the list.

Davis who when viral on the Internet with his speech back in September, 2012 in quest to be the Stark's nominee for Stark County treasurer in the November, 2012 election, has often been spotted by the SCPR on Stark GOP candidate lists as being a contributor.

But he is missing from theses lists any more, it seems.

Small contributions to be sure.

But as any candidate for office will tell you; they are appreciated, treasured and in combination with other small contributors can be a difference maker.

THE DEMOCRATS

TOP COMMITTED?

Hmmm?

The Dems' Stark County Board of Elections (BOE) appointees William Sherer, II (a Ironworkers #550 honcho) and Sam Ferruccio (a local attorney) a far and away "the top guns" for Stark Democratic Party elite contributors.

One has to wonder if a condition of their being appointed to the BOE is an understanding that they will contribute back to the party's prime organization; namely, the Stark County Democratic Party Executive Committee which makes the appointments in the first place.

THE ALSO-RANS?

Glaring MIAs (missing in action) for the Dems include:

former Stark Democratic Party chairs

Johnnie A. Maier, Jr,

John Ferrero and

Sheriff George T. Maier, and

Kody Gonzalez (a recipient of the top job in the offices of Recorder Rick Campbell and Canton Clerk of Courts Phil Giavasis [also current Stark Dems chair] who it appears to the SCPR is being groomed to replace Giavasis

The SCPR's take on Maier, Jr is that he is one the most miserly of all Stark County Democratic Party officials and Democratic Party elected officials with contributions to party candidates.

But doesn't that figure?

The chief prima donna of the party is not expected to help but rather to be supported by "the also-rans."

And if you believe the Mayor Kathy spin, there is the non-Democrat Democratic challenger for mayor J. David Ress.

The SCPR understands that Catazaro-Perry's major attack on her "Democratic?" opponent J. David Ress is that he is not shown in Stark County Board of Elections records as having voted in a partisan primary election as a Democrat.

And that could be to quote Vice President Joe Biden "a really big ... deal!"

It depends on how seriously Massillon Democratic voters take partisan involvement.

And, it depends, according to Ress - if as a registered Democrat, a Democratic voter:

loathes Catazaro-Perry, perhaps as a member of or sympathizer with or influenced by the Ferrero wing of the Massillon Democratic Party, or

loves Catazaro-Perry, perhaps as a member of or sympathizer with or influenced by the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr loyalists.

Ress says that he came to run for mayor at the urging of Thomas Ferrero who is the brother of Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero and husband of Massillon auditor Jayne Ferrero.

So though not formally registered as a Democrat, that is until he casts his ballot in the underway Democratic primary election which concludes next Tuesday.

Ress says that the major attraction to his taking up Ferrero's goading him to run is the nearly non-stop discord between the mayor and Massillon City Council since she took office in January, 2012.

In the 2011 Democratic primary election, Catazaro-Perry defeated the 28 year mayor Cicchinelli as the proxy for the MMPM. Maier, Jr. and Cicchinelli have been political competitors since their days as students at Kent State - Stark.

The Report is told that the the mayor has been "playing nice" with council for about two months now.

The SCPR was at last night's council work session and the mayor couldn't have been more charming.

There was a little bit of a test for the mayor's charm offensive last night.

She and Councilman Ed Lewis, IV (a Ward 6 Republican) seemingly agreed to disagree on the how to prioritize allocating the sparse Massillon dollars to highway repair.

Lewis talked about doing a road near a Massillon school for the safety of school children.

Catazaro-Perry went to bat for Southway near the Freshmark plant so that the company could have an easier time turning its trucks around.

Being "the unaffected by political connections" person she is in her administration of Massillon City Government, does anybody doubt that in advocating for the Southway project that Freshmark's CEO and Chairman Neil Genshaft's $1,035.00 campaign contribution (see contribution list below) never entered her mind?

Though the SCPR expects Catazaro-Perry to defeat the Ress challenge next Tuesday, she will actually have "a finger nail biting time" through about 4:00 p.m. on Monday, May 4th.

Monday is the deadline for Cicchinelli to decide whether or not to file as an independent candidate to challenge her in November.

If he does (and the SCPR has a report that he has circulated petitions but has not made a definite decision) presuming she wins next Tuesday, it will be Cicchinelli, Catazaro-Perry and Republican Lee Brunckhart in November.

Should Ress shock everybody in the Stark County political community and defeat the mayor, then Ress says he has assurances that Cicchinelli will withdraw.

And a shock it indeed would be were Catazaro-Perry to lose.

On a relative scale, it would be in the order of Republican U.S. Representative Eric Cantor's stunning loss in the Republican primary in 2014.

Looking comparatively at the Catazaro-Perry/Ress campaign finance reports filed last Thursday showing fund raising activities through April 15th, the mayor has a massive lead, to wit:

As a general rule, the SCPR does not favor limitations on whom can contribute and what amount in election campaigns.

The are two exceptions however.

One being lawyers who practice in courts, candidates for which are the beneficiaries of contributions from such lawyers.

The other being equating corporations to being human persons who are thereby entitled to constitutional protections of free speech (campaign contributions being defined as free speech) as has been decided by the United States Supreme Court.

In this SCPR series there will be two foci.

With respect to the Guardado/Alexander Canton Municipal Court judge race, the number of lawyers who are contributing to each candidates for the Canton Municipal Court bench.

And with respect to elections-in-general, how poorly local boards of elections serve citizens in providing campaign contribution information in an easily sortable format so that citizens:

can be AWARE of whom is contributing to whom,

in order to be AWARE of what connections contributors may have with respect to the contributors contributing to specific candidates

in order to influence decisions of successful candidates for office

Because much of the foregoing reference to information being - not adequately provided for - in campaign finance reports thanks to the likes of Stark Countians and Ohio General Assembly members Stephen Slesnick (Democrat, Ohio House #49), Kirk Schuring (Republican, Ohio House #48), Christina Hagan, (Republican, Ohio House #50) and Scott Oelslager (Republican, Ohio Senate #29); the Ohio and Stark County electorate grows progressively skeptical if not cynical about the integrity of Ohio's government processes and therefore increasingly, opts out of participating in terms of the percentage of citizens who do the minimum of participation as in: voting in elections.

SCPR Note: Despite having been in the Ohio General Assembly either as a state representative or state senator, Jackson Township's Kirk Schuring could not convince his fellows to require candidates for local office (cities, villages, townships and boards of education) to require that contributors of $100 or more to list their vocation or identify their respective employers.

The SCPR has painstakingly gone through the April 23rd filed campaign finance reports of Angela Alexander and Kristen Guardado in their quest to be Canton's next "elected" municipal court judge to determine who in terms of perhaps having a political interest (e.g. getting a fair hearing for their clients in cases before the court) in seeing one of the candidates prevail on May 5th and in the November general election.

Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court Maureen O'Connor (originally from the Akron area) has made headlines in recent years about making reforms to the judicial selection process,but the SCPR does recall that any of the reforms had to do with better informing Ohioans what if any political interest (e.g. presenting cases before the court for which the contributed to person is running for) a contributor may or may not have in making a contribution.

A simple check off box on a campaign finance report, for instance, could require a contributor to indicate whether or not the contributor or if a part of a law firm or legal partnership appears in, has appeared in or might appear as legal counsel in in a court the candidate for which a political contribution has been made.

A better remedy to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, would be for a candidate to inquire of a would-be lawyer contributor on the the question her/his practicing law in the court that the candidate aspires to, and if the contributor has, does and is more likely than not to practice in the court, then the candidate should voluntarily refuse to accept any such offered contribution.

However the SCPR realizes that such is "pie in the sky" thinking.

Supreme Court Justice O'Connor herself has undoubtedly benefited herself from such contributions in courts she has served in during her legal career.

Accordingly, it is interesting that so far as the SCPR knows, she has not proposed tightening up the reporting process in judicial races so that voters are in a position to be AWARE of whom is contributing to whom when it comes to the administration of justice.

The SCPR shudders to think that such a factor has anything whatsoever to do with the administration of justice.

But one of the fundamentals of due diligence when it comes to political interests potentially influencing government (executive, legislative and judicial branches of government) is for a citizen to FOLLOW THE MONEY and make an assessment whether or not there is appearance of impropriety.

That the Ohio General Assembly and Ohio's chief overseers of the integrity of Ohio's judicial system (i.e. members of the Ohio Supreme Court) have done very little, if anything, or have been anemic in providing for a structure of information for voters to evaluate candidates for office, should be disturbing to all of us who are committed to the trustworthiness of governments at all levels.

Accordingly, the SCPR contends that the likes of Schuring, the Ohio General Assembly and Chief Justice O'Connor are a significant part of the problem of the ever increasing skepticism if not cynicism on the part of the electorate resulting in more and more citizens "dropping out" of our cherished democratic-republican system of government.

TODAY'S CASE STUDY

ALEXANDER VERSUS GUARDADO

This race is likely the top election face off in Stark County's 2015 off year elections.

The amounts of money raised and/or put into the campaign (allowing for candidates' loans to their campaigns) are huge.

For the stakes are very high for the candidates themselves in terms of personal ambition and the SCPR thinks for the Canton Municipal Court practicing legal community and the perception of some that they must be correct in picking the winner because perhaps in a subtle, unarticulated, unrecognized fashion they feel their very livelihoods depend on doing so.

Such having been said, let The Stark County Political Report additionally say that there undoubtedly those, who having the appearance of having a vocational interest on who wins and who loses, are not contributing to further those interests but rather are contributing because they sincerely think that this candidate or that candidate is the "on the merits of it" the better qualified candidate and therefore contribute in order to help get the best quality of the administration of justice candidate elected as judge.

Human beings what human beings are, the SCPR suspects that a distinct minority of those with a vocational interest are contributing for the sake of better government.

And that is why the SCPR thinks the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio Secretary of State Office and the Stark County Board of Elections need to go all out with promoting/building structural requirements of reporting relevant information and making access to that information easy and user friendly to the Ohio/Stark County body politic.

Such is clearly not the case currently.

Stark County Auditor Alan Harold and his chief technology officer appear to be interested in cajoling the Stark County Board of Elections into doing much better in providing easy access to sortable election data information.

But it is too early to give Harold credit for being effective in his purported endeavor. Time will tell. Hopefully, results will be realized "sooner than later."

Here is a detailed analysis of the contributions to the Alexander and Guardado campaigns.

ALEXANDER:

Angela Alexander's campaign finance report shows that there are very few if any Stark County-based attorneys if any who are trying to curry favor with a Judge Angela Alexander should she be nominated by Stark Democrats on May 5th and go on to win the general election.

To boot, most of all her campaign money is in the form of a loan from herself to her campaign.

The attorneys who have contributed to her campaign are Summit County based and most of whom are connected with her Summit County workplace (the Summit County prosecutor's office) who are not likely going to be finding their way to Stark to practice before the Canton Municipal Court.

GUARDADO:

Contrasted to Alexander, Kristen Guardado's list of Stark County-based contributors might well leave some voters and tad nervous about what the implied expectation might be on the part of the contributing attorneys in making the contributions.

If they have such expectations, the SCPR thinks they will prove to be utterly ill-founded and that Kristen Guardado will never, ever entertain a scintilla of a thought as to whether or not and in what amount a given attorney appearing in her court has contributed to her campaign.

The Report has no concerns about Guardado.

However, the failure of Ohio judicial authorities and the Ohio legislation to pay attention to the likelihood that the general public might take a skeptical/cynical look at process that allows - in the administration of justice - those attorneys appearing before judges receiving campaign contributions and thereby develop a perception that something is wrong with such a campaign finance system to the point of some questioning the integrity/trustworthiness of it ought to be a matter of great concern.

Much work needs to be done by the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio General Assembly to fix a system of campaign finances for judicial races that causes furrowed brows to grace the faces of quite a number in the body politic.

SCPR Note: The Report has endeavored to note which of each candidates' contributors are lawyers but since that information is not required on local reports (thanks to Representative Schuring and his fellows in the Ohio General Assembly) there are likely attorney contributors that the SCPR has been unable to identify as being such).

The SCPR trusts that this blog's readers will send information to The Report at tramols@att.net that is missed on who on the contributor is an attorney in those instances where such an identity does not appear.

The SCPR is not the only factor in seeking dramatic reform in the way Ohio's secretary of state, the Ohio General Assembly and local boards of elections deal with the structure of and easy access to campaign finance material.

Unlike The Canton Repository, The Cleveland Plain Dealer makes a meaningful effort to push Ohio officials into making structural and ease of access reforms to Ohio's campaign finance reporting mechanism so that voters can be better informed about the influence peddling money that is injected into Ohio political campaigns.

Sebian credits the Ohio secretary of state with being "the standard" for localities like Stark County to follow in terms of providing database sortable campaign finance information and the SCPR agrees, to wit:

The Ohio secretary of state's campaign-finance database illustrates the standard to which we should hold local boards of elections.

However, as noted earlier in this blog the Ohio General Assembly in concert with the Ohio secretary of state office needs to enhance, expand and sharpen up the structure of campaign finance reporting.

Until and unless fundamental democratic-republican enhancing reforms are made including campaign finance reporting and ease of access to information as to whom is contributing how much to whom, one does not want hear the "woe is me" lamentations by public officials about the growing body politic disenchantment with the integrity and trustworthiness of our processes of government.

Increasingly, Americans, including - of course - Stark Countians are voting with their feet and their feet are increasingly avoiding their neighborhood polling places on election days.

The SCPR thinks that elected officials themselves over time in their political self-servingness have played a major role in eroding the public's confidence in the integrity and trustworthiness of democratic-republican system of government.

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About Blogger

B.A. - Political Science
J.D.
AN INDEPENDENT MINDED POLITICAL COMMENTATOR
Until 1976 I was a Republican. Since then I have considered myself a Democrat. So after long term stints of being a Republican, then a Democrat, I have come to the political position I feel most comfortable with - being an INDEPENDENT MINDED ANALYST who demands effectiveness of our politicians - Republican, Democrat or whatever.
I have changed my political affiliation to "non-partisan" by not voting in either political party primary election.